


all the stars were shining bright

by cinderlily



Category: American Idol RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-29
Updated: 2015-08-29
Packaged: 2018-04-17 18:55:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4677608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinderlily/pseuds/cinderlily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Cook decided to live off campus he really hadn’t taken into account the fact that it would make going back to his apartment between most of his classes completely impractical. He tried, really, for the first week, but then kind of realized he regretted it. Week two he gave in, bugging Neal to just let him use his dorm room.</p><p>That's where he meets David, a freshman who's roommate pretty much always sexiles him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	all the stars were shining bright

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Pri (she requested Cookleta!) and to keep up with my streak of writing every day. 
> 
> (As a former dorm person who got sexiled a lot, I feel you David. I feel you hard.) 
> 
> I haven't written Cookleta in literally years so I apologize if it is terrible. I still love them to death. Not betaed. <3

When Cook decided to live off campus he really hadn’t taken into account the fact that it would make going back to his apartment between most of his classes completely impractical. He tried, really, for the first week, but then kind of realized he regretted it. Week two he gave in, bugging Neal to just let him use his dorm room.

“Dude, you’re an RA, it’s not like you got a roommate.” 

Neal glared at him. “That was kind of the point, Dave. I already have the stupid freshman bugging me at all hours, I don’t really need your lazy ass waiting on my floor.” 

“I’ll be as quiet as a church mouse,” he batted his eyes exaggeratedly. “Puh-puh-puh-lease?” 

A hand made contact with the back of his head. “Okay, fucker, but you buy first round on my nights off.” 

Seeing as he was usually bartending on Neal’s night off this was pretty much free candy. “Deal!” 

So he started going to the dorm most days, mainly Monday and Wednesday between his afternoon philosophy class and before his evening Lit class and sometimes on Tuesdays/Thursdays between his History of Rock and Roll and Religious Studies. (So he was a Junior who didn’t know what his major was going to be, fucking sue him.) 

The thing was, he started to know the people on Neal’s floor. 

Crystal, the hippie chick who was always wandering in to complain about the lack of proper pans in the lounge. Lee who had a strange habit of walking in mid sentence and leaving without actually making a complaint or finishing a thought. Carrie who, were it not for her super scary boyfriend, Cook might have actually hit on. 

But then there was David. Or, like, the _other_ David. Who Cook had honestly thought was some kid looking for their older brother who actually lived on the floor but turned out to _actually_ live on the floor. But he did, you know, live there. And had, what turned out, to be a quite common problem. 

His roommate was a freaking horn dog. Apparently quite repressed back home in wherever he came from, the dude had found a girlfriend the first week and poor David was asked to leave his room **all the time** which left him wandering around homeless. 

“You know, we could ask him to just stop,” Neal offered after the third or fourth time David had walked into the room with his laptop under one arm and his Music Theory homework under the other. 

“Or we could use a hose,” Cook added helpfully. 

David ears turned bright red. “No, no. I mean, I can go somewhere else if I’m bothering you but you really don’t have to say anything. Jason is really nice otherwise and it’s better than if he did this at night or anything. At least I get to sleep and stuff. I don’t want him to be mad at me. He’s really nice about it.” 

“DUDE! He sexiles you like four times a week!” 

David opened his laptop and sat down on the floor cross legged. “But he asks politely?” 

Cook couldn’t help but bark out a laugh, holding his chest and nearly falling off of Neal’s bed. David gave him an odd look.

“What?” 

It only made him laugh harder, he coughed, tears ran down his eyes. “Fuck me, dude, you are the best.” 

David’s ears went completely red. 

“Dave, not in front of the freshman,” Neal rolled his eyes and went back to tooling around on his guitar. “Feel free to visit if you need to David, but I can always say we’re getting calls from neighbors if it’s getting too bad, okay?” 

Looking up from his computer David nodded and bit his lower lip. “Thanks. I will.”

*

David ended up being like the third after that, always arriving about ten minutes after Cook would get there and hanging out until he would finally bail to go get food or Cook would leave for class. It was comforting, really, to see the kid occasionally. After a while he actually got him to talk and found that he was really pretty fascinating. 

He was the first of his family to go to college and not straight on a mission, which was a pretty big thing and sounded painful so Cook steered clear of it after the first conversation. He wanted to get his degree in either Music Education or just Performance. He knew four instruments proficiently and was trying to get into the guitar but found his hands kept slipping on the strings whenever he got nervous. 

(After that conversation Cook brought his guitar and showed him the few tricks he knew to get around that. He also gave him a pick that was a bit thicker as the one Dave had been using was a piece of shit and was obviously given out by the school and ugh. Stupid school people.) 

Then Cook had stolen David away to get some food because he was _tiny_ and looked sad a lot of the time and he could spring for Denny’s if it meant the guy would just smile and laugh. Cause David’s laugh was pretty much the best thing Cook had heard in a long time. The best part being that once he coaxed it out of him once it was like breaking a dam, he got him to laugh _a lot_. (Even when Cook was half sure David didn’t get the joke, he still laughed.)  


Neal kept giving him the side eye though, which was annoying. He hated when his friend did that as it usually meant he knew something Cook didn’t and he was not keen on being the last to know things. That never boded well. 

“Spit it out man,” Cook demanded one Thursday near the end of the semester, storming into the room ten minutes early because class had been a wash all together. 

Neal was on his chair, like always, and a young guy with dreads was sprawled out on the floor looking at the ceiling despondently. Neal rolled his eyes at him. 

“Dave, this is Jason. Dave, Jason,” he pointed between the two of them. “Jason is going through a rough time, as his girlfriend broke up with him, _three weeks ago_.” 

Jason. _Jason_. Name seemed familiar. Neal raised his eyebrows at him meaningfully but it really didn’t help. 

“Jason is _David’s_ roommate.” 

What. The. Fuck. But David hadn’t said anything, had just showed up like always every day. Hung out. Laughed. He quirked his eyebrow. 

“Dude, what’s your room number?” 

Jason looked over at him, eyes red with tears and a gross amount of snot covering his face. “Four seventeen.” 

Without a word he turned and walked away. It wasn’t that far of a walk, but it was made shorter by the long strides he took. He lifted his hand to knock and the door opened before his handmade contact, instead he almost hit David in his face. 

“Hi?” David’s eyes were wide, homework clung to his chest. 

“Figured we probably shouldn’t go into Neal’s room today, it’s full,” Cook said. “Jason, you might know him as your roommate, was dumped a few weeks ago.” 

David’s eyes went to the floor and he blushed. “Oh, yeah. About that.”

“Did you really think you needed to have an excuse to hang out with me?” 

His ears joined in on the blushing and Cook would almost feel bad if it weren’t for how adorable it seemed. “I just um. Didn’t know if you’d like… want to hang out with a freshman? You’re cool. I’m… me?” 

And it all seemed to rush up in Cook at one time, the images of David’s small smile from across the table at Denny’s. How warm his face always seemed after Cook would show him a new chord. The way that it had gone from just once or twice a week to every Monday through Thursday at the same time. 

Cook couldn’t help the grin. “Stop me if I’m wrong here, okay?” 

He leaned in slowly, watching for any hesitation on David’s behalf. There seemed to be nothing but maybe nerves so he finally closed his eyes right before their lips met. David let out an exhale that tickled the hair on the top of Cook’s lip and he huffed an almost laugh which caused David to pull back. 

“Wait, did I do that wrong? I mean… Was that bad?” 

Cook put his hand behind David’s neck and shook his head, not bothering to explain before pulling him in for another kiss. 

They decided not to sexile Jason, because it might be a sore subject for the kid. Also, they were going to take it slow.  


But most importantly? Cook had an apartment, a decision he didn’t regret in the least.

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from "And then He Kissed Me" by the Crystals


End file.
